The game of pool, also called pocket billiards, involves the use of a table with six pockets located along the periphery of a table, a number of balls positioned on the table, and two or more players each using a stick to propel the balls. One particular ball, the cue ball, is propelled by a player toward another ball on the table. The object of the game is to drive the balls other than the cue ball into the pockets. Many variations of the game are commonly played.
The most popular size tables are rectangular and range from five to ten feet long, and from two and one-half to five feet wide. Most tables used in this country have table surfaces with lengths which are twice their width. The balls are generally about two and one-quarter inch in diameter.
To begin the game, the balls are usually grouped within a triangularly shaped rack, with the position of the rack on the table and the initial starting point of the cue ball being determined by markings on the table. After the balls are properly aligned, the rack is removed and one player propels the cue ball into the other balls. The players take turns using the cue ball to drive the other balls into the pockets until none of the balls except the cue ball are left.
Usually, the cue ball is used to drive another ball directly into the pocket. Sometimes, the cue ball is first bounced off the sides or cushions of the table before striking the other balls, or the cue ball is used to propel a first ball into one or more other balls before one ball is eventually driven into the pocket. Rarely, however, does more than one ball fall into a pocket with a single stroke of the stick, unless a very experienced or lucky player is involved. Even then, it is seldom that more than two or perhaps three balls are driven into pockets at one time.
Pool is a game which lends itself to trick shots. One such trick shot is described in a book entitled Inside Pocket Billiards by Steve Mizerak, published by Contemporary Books, Inc. in 1973. This book describes, among other things, a particular trick shot in which six balls are each driven simultaneously into one of the six pockets on the table. The balls are divided into two groups of three in which the middle balls in each group are positioned close enough together so that the cue ball cannot pass through. The book describes the middle balls as being placed halfway between the side pocket and the diamond on the table, in the center of the table. The end balls are described as touching the middle balls but angled toward the corner pockets. Upon hitting the cue ball below center and using a hard stroke, the six balls are each supposed to fall into different pockets on the table. However, an ordinary pool player will not be able to make this shot consistently, if at all, from merely a written description of the shot or by observing another perform the shot. This is due to the difficulty in accurately aligning the balls by eye.